Moonbug

Nice build thus far! As to your question, my method is to grip the brass in the flat (not grooved) part of my older needle nosed pliers, the hit the pliers with a hammer several times. Loud, but effective. Just did it today with my Stagecoach build.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for doing this. Like most here, I'm heartbroken that it was necessary, but with the Peg on my shelf I couldn't be more grateful. As it has been said many times, your build is the gold standard for this kit and modifying it.

How did I not know you were building this? this tiny stuff is so awesome!

Welcome aboard Matt - Nice work thus far. This is a great project to start with because it not only allows for a fair learning curve, but it also offers some good flexibility to either 'enhance' the kit, or just go along straight with the instructions. Since you've gotten through the planking so cleanly, I'm confident the rest of the build will be a breeze!

Off to a good start Pierre. This is an interesting kit - looking forward to seeing how she shapes up.

Nice work Sjors! It's exciting getting close the the finish. I love the blocks spread all over - looks like little bug-sailors crawling around at work on the rigging. ;-)

Hi Jax! Thanks for the comment. The warmer wood on the deck is Swiss Pear. Augie substituted some of the original wood with the swiss, and a couple of smaller deck fittings with Boxwood. When I did a little bit of refinishing early on after taking over the build, I re-sanded much of the deck, then really rubbed in a couple of coats of Tung oil. Then, I used a little bit more Swiss Pear in a some smaller areas (particularly the ships boats) to try and tie some of it in artistically.

Anja! I'm late to the party! I didn't realize you started a new build. I blame Sjors, he Should've told me.

Thank you so much for the likes, and especially comments everyone! I'm quite overwhelmed and humbled at the responses - truly.

Thanks again, very very much every one. Got the other images loaded into the Completed Build Gallery (Thanks Chuck and Dubz for your help!) here:

Obviously it was extraordinarily humbling and intimidating to have been asked to complete Augie's Confederacy. Aside from his excellent work, Augie was an extremely popular gentleman on the forum, and for all the right reasons. Quite simply, he was just a great guy. I can honestly say, I did my best for him, and I hope he's happy with the end result. Thank you all SO much for following along and providing such great support. Here are a couple of shots of the finished ship. More images will soon be up in the Gallery of Completed Builds, and once that is done I'll update this log accordingly.

So... not a whole lot of mystery here with the construction of the pinnace. I had the same issues with the cap rail using the Swiss Pear, but when through fewer iterations because I need I needed the patiences to just use a sharp blade. I notched out the thwarts, and carved out the knees. The rails are pretty straightforward, glued together from the laser cut. I ended up using small bits of boxwood for the oar locks. I couldn't manage to carve the basswood that small and still keep it in tact, so I went with the denser boxwood and just had them two "steps" carved. Finally, I tethered the small boats to the waist beams. I know that this isn't a tradition knot of any kind - however this is the first type of "slip" knot my father taught me how to use. We moved a lot when I was young, and this is how he tied down all the stuff we'd load up on our open top, built ourselves trailer. It's a clever little knot that's easy to manipulate quickly when we'd stop at a rest stop and need something out of the back. So this is a little homage to my late father. :-) Coming up - the finale...

Well folks - it's all wrapped up except the photo shoot... ...more to come.

Jack - Kinda sorta, but not really. These two small boat kits come with the Model Shipways Confederacy Kit. They look to be essentially a smaller version of Chuck's individual longboat kit. Also worth noting - they don't come with any of the rigging or rigging elements.

Thanks Dubz! Steve - Here are a couple shots of the longboat and the pinnace against the ruler. Looks to be about 5" with the pinnace (obviously still in progress) about a half inch longer.

Moving on to the inboard details. The floorboards and seats are pretty basic. I just pre-planked 6 or 7 strips of basswood together for about 6 inches so I would have enough wood for what I needed for both boats. Risers and thwarts are added. The larger thwart with the mast hold was shaped and added with a strip of brass along with a couple of smaller brackets. Instead of using small wire for the belaying pins, I sanded down a dowel and used a similar method as trenailing. The rest of the inboard thwarts and details are added and they are all pretty straightforward. It was pretty tricky getting a good score along the edges of the seats. I wish I'd have taken a picture of it - but my method was to pinch sharp tweezers (you can actual see the tweezers I used in the photo above) together with a small piece of wood between them to keep the ends a consistent distance apart. Then I drag one tip along the outside of the strip and the other scores the wood. Rear seats, knees, and windlass are all added. In keeping with what I've done previously, I used metal strips instead of card stock for the bowsprit irons. The rings are all put together and blackened before mounting. Finally - the oar locks were done in the same method as the belaying pins - i.e., the same as trenailing. I gently sanded down a dowel by mounting it in my Dremel as a makeshift lathe, then glued the end into each hole in the cap rail and snipped it off. My primary reason for this is my general inability to properly match paint to the wood color that the basswood ends up being after it's stained. Finally, the rudder is mounted with metal strips and the finishing touches are all added. Here are a couple shots of the final longboat. The Pinnace is up next.

Ok, first post with the new format - here we go! :-) This post represents at least couple of weeks of work. Because it's obviously slow-going, I started on the small boats at the same time as the anchors and other details and worked through them simultaneously. I will say - I was quite pleased with how the small boasts are laser cut and put together. I've always struggled with coming up with small both bulwarks, and inevitably end up with uneven hulls. Don't get me wrong - I still came up with uneven hulls - but at least they were closer than I've been able to do before. I was also grateful that there were a number of extra pieces in the laser cut sheets, because my fat fingers were snapping off pieces left and right. Although I initially started with both boats - I ultimately finished off the longboat first before moving on to the pinnace. As you might imagine, a bit tricky trying to get all the bulwarks lined up with even spaces between them. I did end up using CA glue for pretty much all of this - I just couldn't get CVA to hold properly or clamp long enough. After that - the planking begins. We're all pretty familiar with this process - soak, bend, dry... repeat. It was a little tricky with such thing single planking because I knew I wouldn't have a ton or room to sand. In fact, you will notice in the some of the shots (with light behind the boat) how thin some of the areas became as they were evened out. After the longboat is planked, it was time to pull out the bulwark centers. MAN what a sketchy job that was. I tried 'filing' off the edges as recommended with my smallest needle file, and that was a pretty quick failure. Then I sliced a tiny bit at a time using a super sharp X-acto knife. A little bit more success, but still difficult. It took about two thousand delicate slices to get through. So finally, I put a super thin blade on my Dremel, put it on it's highest speed, and cut through the edges. No matter what method I used, I inevitably snapped off at least a few of the frames and had to re-glue the tips back on. Then, sanding the frames inside and evening out all of them was a very slow, tedious process as well. My solution for that was a very fine sand attachment on the dremel that had a rounded cone-shaped and some very careful sanding. In keeping with my earlier idea to bring the center of the ship together artistically with the deck, I used Swiss Pear for the cap rail and moulding. Obviously, the Swiss Pear is about a million times more dense than the stock wood, so I had a number of failures. Honestly, I blame them on impatience. I outlined the cap rail then tried to use a Dremel attachment and some other ideas to cut through the Swiss Pear quicker. Just like we always seem to learn - it ultimately takes longer trying to come up with a "short-cut" than it does just to be patient. The solution here - draw out a template onto the Swiss Pear, and cut with a sharp blade. Sure, you have to go over the cut about 50 times to get through the dense wood, but it's worth it in the end. Then it's all about sanding and matching.

Welcome!

Welcome Blaine! Though I haven't built her - I've seen the Syren become many folks' favorite pretty quickly. Good luck with her!

Thanks very much for the likes and comments folks. I'll have another update pretty soon - been planking some small boats. I've said before and I'll say it again... planking is always quite a struggle for me. So I'm just doing what I can, and hoping for the best.

Thanks for the very kind words (and likes) everyone - much appreciated! Thanks Dubz! I get to cheat and use my work camera for play sometimes! Here's a shot from my trip to South Africa. Shhhhh!!! I never said I wouldn't use it ANYMORE, only with the Confed! But hey, if you want to come get it and have a cup of tea or coffee at the Lehman Shipyard, I'll let you have it!

That's pretty sweet.

Glad you're back at it a bit Dick! I can totally relate and often get frustrated with the professional commitments. :/ I just wanted to say - I love this build. It reminds me so much of the 14th and 15th century models (like the Mataro model) that were found in Europe.

I've been working on a little bit of double duty as I get closer to the finish of the Confederacy. I've started the ships boats, but have also been working on anchors and small details of the ship. Nothing particularly complicated with the anchors. As with most of the laser cut parts, the anchor stocks are pretty beefy and required a fair amount of sanding. I used pin files to notch them of course, but the wood itself is soft, so I used nothing grittier than 400 grain sandpaper to ease them down bit by bit and bevel them. Pretty standard stuff with the bolts, just clipped off some nails and blackened them. Likewise with the bands - once again the instructions call for card stock, which I think is a perfectly viable option and probably even simulates a better thickness to the bands. But I love the look of using metal instead, so I trimmed some more strips and blackened them as well. After test fitting both the anchors I stained them up - then finished off the rings and served them with thread. My intent was to just lash the anchors to the model - as Chuck points out in his primer, that was the case with Navy Board style models (even though I've taken some liberties elsewhere. After lashing the starboard anchor, I realized that because I added a couple extra upper deck cannon to the port side - simply lashing the anchor would interfere! So here's where I went rogue... I decide to keep the starboard lashed, but rig the port side to the cathead. Crazy talk! I pulled a page from Mastini's book since I couldn't really remember the details, carved out and constructed a pulley and rigged her up. This will be the back side of the model, so I didn't go full-on with details - but I think it looks fair and adds a interesting wrinkle. I also got the chance to mount the waist stanchions and railings. Finally - an important transition! I made the switch from the Dremel workbench to the stand. She's getting closer...

Nice approach Nick, and smooth work!